Page 23 of The Veteran
I relaxed, pleased she’d taken the conversation in a different direction. “As you know, he used to work for Willow’s father, Frank. Her brother, Tom, got rid of him as quickly as he could after he took control of the company, but Ronan had a lot of contacts in the security industry, and he was well-respected. He decided to open his own firm. He knew he couldn’t do it alone, so he reached out to me.”
She was listening raptly. “Had you dealt with him when he was working for Frank?”
“No. We, uh”—I cleared my throat—“knew each other from college, actually.”
Her mouth formed an O. “You didn’t mention you’d gone to college.”
I grimaced. “I was only there for a year.”
Until I’d trusted the wrong person, suffered a tragedy, and then done something stupid that forced me to leave. But she didn’t need to know that.
“It’s still more college than I’ve done.” Her tone was wistful. “Before my life blew up, I’d planned to go to a dramatic arts college. I’d already been accepted.”
“Why didn’t you go?” I asked gently.
She sighed. “It just didn’t seem important anymore, and I guess I couldn’t help wondering if Dad might have gotten involved with Getty and his crew so he’d be able to pay the tuition fees. It was an expensive course, and from what I heard in court, Dad had only ever committed minor felonies before then.”
My heart ached for her. I wanted to reach for her hand, but she’d established a boundary between us and I needed to respect that. “It wasn’t your fault. He was an adult. He made his own choices.”
She pulled a face that indicated she didn’t agree, but then made a show of brushing off the conversation. “Anyway, tell me more about starting King’s Security.”
I wished I knew what to say, but she clearly didn’t want to talk about it. “Long story short, Ronan and I agreed to pool our resources and work together, but I had a few months to work out before I could come on properly. During that time, Zeke reached out to him and, well, he has a very particular skill set that Ronan wanted, so he agreed that the three of us could go in together.”
She frowned. “Did he ask you how you felt about Zeke joining?”
“Yeah.” I pushed away my meal, no longer hungry. “I agreed to it. I’d already met him once through my work in special forces, and while he might not be my favorite person, he’s good at his job.” I scratched the back of my head. “We’re lucky to have him. You won’t ever catch me telling him that, but it’s the truth. We wouldn’t have scaled nearly so quickly without his help. The shit he can do with computers is crazy. It’s just a shame he doesn’t—” I cut myself off. “Never mind.”
Curiosity shone in her eyes, but she didn’t ask, and I was grateful for it.
“Enough about me.” Time to deflect again. “What was it like growing up with your father?”
She fell silent for a moment, and I wondered if I should have asked something shallower, but I genuinely wanted to know.
“It felt normal to me, honestly. Like, in hindsight, I had an unusual childhood but back then, I didn’t know any different. We moved a lot, probably because Dad kept getting into trouble, but I didn’t know that at the time. Mom kept us afloat. Her name was Mary. She was the stable one. He was charismatic but unreliable.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “It’s strange. While I know my father wasn’t a good man, objectively speaking, he was always kind to me. He didn’t abuse Mom, and he didn’t drink a lot or do drugs. Sometimes I wouldn’t see him for a while, but then I’d wake up and he’d be standing over my bed. He’d say…” She trailed off.
I leaned forward. “What did he say?”
Her small smile was somehow both sad and joyful. “He’d say that he’d missed me, and that he wanted to make sure I remembered that everything that was precious to him was tucked up in my bed.”
My chest squeezed. “He sounds like a good dad.” And what a mind fuck that must be, considering what had happened.
“Not good, but not bad either. He was just my dad. It’s hard to reconcile that with the person who thought it was okay to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars of other people’s money.”
“Did you ever doubt he did it?”
“No.” She twisted her lips. “Deep down, I knew he was guilty. Just like I know that Mom died because he pushed her. He’s the reason she’s gone. Even if they hadn’t gotten into that fight, and she hadn’t tripped and hit her head, she’d probably be dead anyway. He killed her the moment he tried to double-cross those bank robbers and cut them out of their share of the money.” She lifted her eyes to mine, and they shone with emotion. “But I don’t hate him. He was a crook and a killer, and it’s his fault I’m in this situation now. But I’ve never hated him, and I don’t think I ever will. If anything, I feel partially responsible for him.”
“That’s okay,” I assured her, seeing that she was struggling to keep a grip on her feelings. “It’s okay to have mixed emotions about it.” Perhaps it was easy for me to hate him for what he’d done to her, but even I could see it wasn’t that straightforward for her, and she seemed to be holding onto a lot of misplaced guilt. I shifted uncomfortably. I generally wasn’t one for talking about feelings but something told me she needed it right now. “Whatever you feel is okay. It doesn’t make you wrong or bad. It just makes you human.”
She grabbed my hand. “Thank you.”
I tried to look blasé. “It’s nothing.”
Her hand tightened around mine. “To me, it’s everything.”
My heart gave an extra thump. Damn, when it came to Sage Nichols, I was so fucked.
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